Unexpected
by You'veBeenJayed
Summary: Zim's greatest fear is shown along with his weakness. Dib is the cause of this. He's finally won, he should be happy, right? Then why does he feel so...bad? Maybe that's why it ended so unexpectantly for them both. A little ZADR


**This idea came to me while watching "Saucers Morons". Also because I've been trying forever to make a fanfic with a sad Zim. Don't ask me why. I feel sadistic enough.**

**It's in Dib's point of view.**

**--**

I never would've thought I would ever be in the position I am now. I never thought that I, Dib, would be comforting _him_, of all people. Forget that, I never thought that _he_ would need comforting at all from anybody…ever. I wasn't sure if it amazed me or just plain confused me.

But, sure enough, here was the alien I'd been trying to defeat for ages, crying his contacted eyes out—and in my arms, nonetheless. I was still in shock. It all happened so fast. I came to ask him what was wrong, thinking up ways to capture him with this newfound weakness, then ended up being forced—partly—to cradle and soothe him.

Maybe the world was ending. Yeah, this was a sign of the apocalypse. One enemy caring for the other never-showing-weakness-but-now-oddly-is enemy. The world was going to be sucked into eternal darkness and be doomed to fall under the ruling of vampires and werewolves and all the other paranormal creatures I always knew existed.

The weird part of all this is, I'm the one who caused him to be in this position in the first place. It's my fault he's like this, and I did it on purpose, hoping for this result but never expecting it. I guess I just said the right things. But, then, why do I feel so…wrong for saying them?

Anyway, I bet you're all pretty confused on what the heck I'm talking about here, so I'll start from the beginning…

--

It started this morning, during Skool. Everything was going as normally boring as usual. Ms. Bitters was discussing our future of doom, the rest of my idiot classmates dozing off, and Zim being as suspiciously alien.

Except today, I finally had a plan on making it different than usual. I had the perfect plan to expose Zim as he was to the entire world. It was genius! There was no way anyone could deny it after seeing him in his normal alien form. I planned on making that happen. It had to be during lunch, while everyone would be eating.

I became antsy waiting for lunch to come, so I decided to write a little warning note to Zim. I scribbled down on a piece of notebook paper and tossed it onto his desk while Ms. Bitters' wasn't paying attention.

_Prepare for your exposion, Zim! Everyone will soon know exactly what you are…_

It didn't take long for him to read it—with a glare, I might add—and toss it back at me after scribbling something else down.

_Yeah, right, good luck with that human._

I looked up and saw him smirking at the furious expression I'm sure I had. I glared back at him before writing something else down and tossing it back.

_I will! You'll see! At lunch, they'll all see!_

I smiled at him in triumph. He crumpled up the paper and tossed it at me, hitting me in the side of the head. It was a wonder Ms. Bitters hadn't seen us passing notes yet, considering we were both in the front row and making it kind of obvious.

I uncrumpled the paper and scanned it. My anger grew at his written mockery.

_Just like they always do, huh? Pathetic laughing-stock of a germ-bag, you'll never expose me._

I was getting ready to respond, when the bell for lunch finally rang. The kids all ran cheerfully out of class. Before Zim was able to get away, I caught up with him in the hallway and yanked him around to face me. By the look on his face he seemed pretty surprised.

"What do you want now, Dib-stink?" Zim had mumbled, looking bored.

I gave him a challenging glare. "I will expose you, Zim, as the alien you are. Right here, right now. C'mon,"

Zim responded to my challenge with a glare of his own. "Alright, human, try your best. But you will never defeat the greatness that is ZIM!"

"There is no greatness about you, Zim! The human race is far more superior to your alien antics. You'll never have a chance at taking it over," I told him.

Zim waved it off. "PLEASE, pathetic meatbag! This planet is filled with nothing but disgusting, stupid Earth-creatures!"

"Not as disgusting as whatever kind of creature you are!" I was vaguely aware of a crowd gathering around us. Perfect. I was expecting to expose him at lunch, but with so many watching now, it would be a wonderful chance to take.

I didn't think Zim ever noticed the crowd yet though, because he wasn't trying to continue his act of being a human. "There is nothing you or your Earthling people can do to defeat my awesome Zimness!"

"Oh, please, Zim. You're just saying all that because you're afraid," Woah, not sure where I got that from, but it seemed pretty good, so I continued on it. "Yeah, you're just _afraid_ of what we could and _will_ do to you when you're discovered as a real-live alien!"

Zim scoffed, half-heartedly. Was he getting nervous? Had to be my imagination. "Pfft, not true. Nothing you creatures could do to me would ever scare the mighty Zim. For he is afraid of nothing! NOTHING I tell you!"

"You would be afraid of…um… Of being put on an autopsy table and being experimented on!" He visibly gulped, and I could tell he was trying to hide back his fear in those contacts of his. When he said nothing, I continued. "Just imagine it, Zim. You're on a cold table in a dark room, strapped and helpless. People—so many people—are surrounding you in masks and rubber gloves, scalpels in hand, ready to cut you open and check you out piece-by-alien-piece. There would be nowhere to run or hide. Your screams would be unheard!"

Zim stood there before me, looking stunned. I wasn't sure what he was thinking. He seemed really odd at that moment though. In my winning streak, I ignored it and jumped on him.

Before he was able to snap out of it and push me away, I removed his contacts and hair, revealing red-eyes and antennas. I heard the crowd gasp and knew my duty was done.

I got off of Zim so everyone could inspect him more intently. Zim stood, frozen. He looked slowly around at all the faces he apparently just realized were there.

"An alien!"

"A real-live alien!"

"Zim's an actual alien!"

"I…I, uh…Um…" Zim stuttered, rooted to the spot. I kept up my smug smile, proud of my work. The newly-revealed alien backed slowly away as the crowd of children began to move in on him.

"You're doomed Zim. Prepare for that autopsy table!" I laughed.

Zim's eyes widened and a look spread across his features that I'd never seen on him before: Fear. He looked scared. Scared for his life. I swear, I could've seen something like tears envelop his eyes.

After that, he ran. The crowd of kids followed him. I just stood there, shocked.

I should feel so great right now. I just exposed Zim as an alien to everyone! I won! I finally won! But…I didn't feel like I won. I felt horrible.

I had to find Zim.

I managed to catch up to the crowd of blood-thirsty children after a few minutes of searching. I had yet to find Zim though and, thankfully, neither had the crowd by the looks of it. The bell rang, signally lunch was over. Today was one of our extremely rare half-days, so after lunch we were supposed to just go home.

"Maybe Zim left Skool already," some kid said.

"Yeah! We should go search around town for him!" another agreed. The rest of the crowd cheered and ran out of the Skool. I stood, shocked at their reactions.

_What did I do?_

When the last kid ran out of the hallway and outside I saw out. That's when I realized something: Zim was still in the building. I sighed in relief at this and went off searching the now-empty building. As soon as that bell rang, all the teachers were gone with the students. Only the janitor stayed after to clean the halls. I remember passing him somewhere, leaning up against the lockers, asleep.

That's when a faint sound caught my ears. I stopped and listened. Nothing. I was ready to look somewhere else when I heard the sound again—clearer—and it certainly wasn't the janitor's snoring. It sounded like whimpering.

I went to go check it out. What I found when I turned the corner into an open, empty classroom, shocked me to no end.

"Z-Zim…?" I'd mumbled out. The green alien boy was sitting in a corner, head in his knees, shoulders shaking. Was he… No, he couldn't be. Aliens couldn't cry. Tears are made up with water, and Zim is burned by water, so he couldn't cry.

I took a few more steps closer. I doubt he heard me before. "Zim."

Zim's head shot up and he stared at me in pure, undisguised fear. Once he figured it out that it was me and not one of the other kids, his maroon eyes softened and dulled. He sat his head on his knees, wrapping his arms around them.

"You're going to take me away now, aren't you?" He asked numbly.

I didn't know what to say or do. I stood there, dumbfounded. He was just giving up? There was no resistance, no lie to tell the others, just this? It wasn't Zim. This wasn't right. Why did I feel so horrible? This was my fault he was like this. I had won! He'd given up! But…it wasn't right. This was the chance I had been waiting for for ages, but I wasn't able to do it. I just couldn't do it.

Instead of answering, I stepped closer and leaned down to face him. He stared at me with watery red eyes and sniffled. I didn't know aliens had snot either, but that's something I'll question later. He had obviously been crying.

I wiped away a few tears still falling from his eyes and was surprised to find that they were a very light tint of purple and smelled kind of like blueberries. They weren't exactly _wet_ either. They were cottony, but had no specific form like water. Very odd. I reminded myself to check that out later.

Finally, I couldn't help myself. I did what I never thought I would ever want to do to him—I kissed him softly on his green lips. He seemed shocked at first, then kissed me back. When we broke apart, I hugged him tightly, showing him how sorry I really was while he, holding me tightly back, showed me how scared he really was.

_What did I do?_

And that's where we left off. So here I am, holding a sniffling alien and whispering to him softly to calm him. He seemed a lot less freaked out than before, but still a little shaken.

I sighed. "Zim… I'll fix this, I'm sorry…" I finally said through the silence.

"How can you? I am doomed to hiding now until I take over your pathetic planet," he threatened weakly.

"My dad made a mind eraser a while back. I could easily steal it from his lab and swipe everyone's memory of even seeing you as an alien,"

"R-really?"

I nodded. "Yeah,"

There was another long silence. "How did you know I was still here?"

I smiled a little. "It was pouring outside. I knew you would be smart enough to stay out of the rain."

He smiled a little, too. "Oh, right." He leaned his head on my shoulder. I was a little caught-off-guard at first, but then began stroking his antennas. They were soft, but scaly. They felt kind of nice. He made a weird purring sound that made my stomach churn—in a good way. "Dib-monkey?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Protecting me. Isn't me being captured and experimented on what you always wanted?"

I frowned, then shrugged. "I guess not."

"You'll always protect me, right?"

"…Yeah, yeah I will."

--

**Man, major mush factor alert. I did **_**not**_** want to make Zim such a wuss, but he was scared and there really wasn't much else I could do with his personality besides that. Oh, well.**

**The ending, I'm less than proud of, and went a completely different way than I was going for. Weird.**

**Anyway, this is my first Invader Zim story, oneshot, thingy. So read and review!**


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